The next morning after breakfast the enlarged group of Leaf Shinobi and Cloud Shinobi along with their Raikage set forth from the little outpost town "So if your looking for Tsunade why'd you bring these brats along" Ay growled.

Almost two hours of utter silence later "The blonde gaki is my apprentice, those two are his teammates and Sarutobi-sensei made the decision to send them along because they work best as a team" Jiraiya admitted.

Secretly agreeing with the old Hokage now after seeing them work, neither boy did anything without Sakura's say so, which kept them from doing stupid things that could end up getting them in trouble.

It did bug him however that Sakura was willing to risk her life for them with no regards to her own safety sometimes "Yeah and you promised to teach me something cool Er…Jiraiya-sensei" Naruto reminded with a sulk.

"Our next break, it's something you'll be able to work on as we walk hopefully" the Toad Sage relented, not backing out on his promise to teach his apprentice a jutsu since he had actually become a Chunin.

Near the back and bringing up the rear of the group were Cee and Darui, the two noticed when Sasuke inched closer to Sakura who was reading a book "Anything interesting in there" Sasuke asked the girl.

Who flipped a page then flashed him a smile "Quite, it's all about advanced medical ninjutsu techniques, it details the jutsu to remove poisons, heal internal organs, burn out illnesses on a molecular level, there's even an advanced chakra scalpel technique in here" Sakura explained.

Very happy with her new book "What the….how did you come to possess such a book, it's not as if you can use the techniques in it" Cee scoffed from behind them, dislike for Leaf Shinobi clear in his tone of voice.

Sakura met his gaze from over her shoulder "Maybe not yet but intend on practicing them….when I can, as for how I got this book, it was a gift from a fellow Chunin" Sakura informed brightly not letting his bad attitude affect her any.

Cee rolled eyes his not believing a word that had come out of her mouth obviously "Behave man, we're supposed to be working together in order to find Bee and Tsunade" Darui elbowed his partner trying to reign him in.

As they continued to walk for the next two hours until it was noon and Jiraiya finally called for a break "I sense a boar in that direction" Naruto pointed when they were put in charge of hunting for their meal.

"Good job, your getting better at sensing" Sakura ruffled his hair earning a beaming smile from the boy and fifteen minutes later said boar was being cut up and made into a daikon, potato and boar meat soup in a large pot over a fire that Sasuke started for them with his fire jutsu.

Twenty minutes later lunch was ready "Mm your mother taught you well" Darui moaned as the potatoes and boar meat practically melted in his mouth, he only paused in eating when she remained utterly silent.

Jiraiya grimaced "These two brats were orphans upon until a week ago" the Toad Sage explained, knowing that it had to be a sore point for the girl who'd had to grow up on her own with nobody around to help her figure things out.

Darui winced but when he went to apologize she shook her head "It's okay you didn't know, so there's no need to say your sorry Darui-san" the rosette shrugged, behaving maturely to his surprise.

The first two done eating were Naruto and Jiraiya "How long is that going to take you wonder" Sasuke asked before the duo could head a short distance away from the temporary camp that had been set up.

And Ay resolved himself to waiting just a bit longer when, "About an hour or so, did you want to train, go ahead then" Jiraiya snorted, of course the brat would want to do something other than walk for a bit.

Sasuke turned to Sakura who nodded "Face me seriously and don't hold back" the Uchiha requested once they were a fair distance away from the Raikage and the other pair intent on training some while they could.

"Well don't complain if you hurt afterwards Sasuke" Sakura warned, whipping out her weapons scroll and unsealing the new scythe Genma had, had custom made just for her, Sasuke shuddered but dropped into a defensive position, sharingan activated.

~Half an hour later~

A visible sheen of sweat could be seen on his arms while blood dripped from his forehead as he strained against the scythe bearing down on him "Tch" Sasuke tsked, feeling stupid now for asking her to not hold back.

Sakura giggled at him, disengaging when he thrust his foot out trying to kick her in the stomach "Nice try Sasuke, Suiton: Syrup Trap" the pinkette weaved hand signs to an unfamiliar jutsu and spewed out not water but a sticky looking substance.

And what did he do, he got himself stuck in it like an idiot "What the hell Sakura, what is this stuff" Sasuke groaned upon realizing he'd lost the spar since he was stuck and unable to move, he'd be ready for it next time though.

"Syrup Sasuke, I only just learned that jutsu a few days ago so I haven't gotten it down completely yet" Sakura admitted, using a regular water jutsu to free him from the syrup and heave him on his feet, letting her hands glow green.

To heal him of the various cuts she'd inflicted upon his person, Cee straightened at seeing her use the mystical palm "Well now that I know about it, I won't step in it like a bleeding idiot next time" Sasuke huffed.

Deactivating his sharingan "Hehehe" Sakura laughed, obviously amused by his frustration, "At least you didn't fall in it completely and only stepped in it" she finished her giggling fit with a teasing jab.

Prompting Sasuke to roll his eyes "At least I'm not the one who blew up a melon all over myself" the Uchiha shot back, thinking of something to say in response after a moment, Sakura froze, gaping at him then harrumphed.

"It was one melon, one, I got over-confident which I never did again, mister I'm afraid of seeing to much skin" Sakura grumbled good-naturedly, taking the mickey out of him for his conservative ways.

Sasuke scowled in response "Ha ha funny, excuse me for being uncomfortable when you practically strip yourself in public" Sasuke accused, thinking he'd won the verbal spar, of course he really should have known better.

When Sakura rolled her eyes "Just my shirt or dress and I'm still wearing clothes underneath so therefore it's moot" Sakura declared triumphantly, especially since Sasuke couldn't come up with anything else to say.

"You two are ridiculous" Cee scoffed not overly impressed, even if she had surprised him by being able to use medical ninjutsu, Sakura grinned in answer then tended to her weapon as she rubbed it down before sealing it back in it's scroll.

Not long after camp was broken down as they set off down the path again, Naruto struggling to practice his new jutsu as they walked along, unfortunately when the sun sunk low on the horizon they still hadn't reached the next outpost town.

So the lot of them had no choice but to sleep outdoors, so once they'd chosen a spot Sakura whipped out her inkpot and brush "There's no need for that now is there" Darui frowned when she started drawing seals all around them.

Sakura shot him a flat smile "Better to be safe than sorry, you never know when someone will be sent after you" Sakura commented, resuming her task, Jiraiya frowned then spluttered on his water in realization.

"Of course you'd be worried, listen Sakura….by now everything should have already been taken care of back in Leaf so you don't to have fear being his target any longer" Jiraiya assured, knowing that these kids didn't know Minato was now back in office.

She tilted her head to the side in confusion "Regardless of what you say she's probably still going to set up seals, it's ingrained in her at this point and truthfully the added protection does make me feel better" Sasuke chimed in.

A little confused himself, there's no way Danzo would quit that easily after all "Yeah I agree with Sasuke here, those seals have saved our lives many times already" Naruto nodded his head agreeing with his teammate.

"If the brat wants to put up protective seals let her Darui" Ay grunted, a little surprised at how vehement the two boys were about having them placed around their camp, Sakura didn't look like she cared either way because she'd simply continued drawing.

Until she'd gone around their camp twice, creating a double layered barrier and Sasuke focused his lightning natured chakra into the seals making them much more dangerous than the average barrier seals.

Then she crawled into her bedroll and went to sleep, Naruto and Sasuke quickly following her in slumber "Guess I'm not that surprised, from what I've seen of them so far these brats are more aggressive with their protection than most Jonin I know" Jiraiya sighed.

Stoking the fire "Why, it's like she's expecting an attack from someone, not specifically those two from the other day but someone" Darui turned to face the Sannin, brow furrowed in slight concern, he wasn't a wholly heartless bastard.

Jiraiya grimaced "Danzo Shimura, apparently she was placed under Anbu watch for about a week after they got back from their first mission, he heard about it and since he's been trying to get her in Root, hence this" the Toad Sage waved his hand, indicating the seals.

"Yes but why she's just a kid, sure she's talented but not prodigy nor is she a clan child, so there's no real plausible reason for his actions, though you did say something earlier" Cee crossed his arms, shooting a glare at the Chunin.

To make sure they really were asleep "Minato, he took back over office and he intends on putting a stop to Danzo's plotting that's another reason Sarutobi-sensei sent them with me even though I'd already planned on bringing Naruto along anyway" Jiraiya explained.

Ay sneered "Namikaze's really back then, those two brats, their his aren't they" the Raikage scowled before realizing something, the blonde looked to much like Minato so the boy had to the man's son.

What he didn't understand was how the girl was his daughter "Sakura's adopted, though apparently she has a fire-cracker of a temper like her adoptive mother, I saw a hint of it the other day in the inn" the Sannin admitted.

Before to long the three of them settled for the night and after breakfast they continued with their walk the day before "Gah I can't get it" Naruto whined three hours later when they were nearing the next outpost town.

Sakura trained her gaze on him "Knucklehead never say you can't do something….let me see, Jiraiya-sama said that the first task was rotation right, it has to spike out in order to pop" Sakura sighed when he gave her the puppy dog eyes.

So held out her hand for his water balloon "That's correct Sakura, I doubt you'd be able to….what just happened" Jiraiya nodded, going on to say that he didn't thing she could manage the technique when the water balloon promptly spiked out and burst in a spray of water.

"It popped as it was supposed to, I think your problem is Naruto that your chakra is only going in one direction so try to come up with a way to concentrate on having it go both ways at the same time thus accomplishing the task" Sakura lectured.

Having obviously been watching "Smart mouth you got there Brat, do you do any other tricks besides explain complicated jutsu" Ay sneered, intentionally insulting the girl in order to see her temper and find out for himself just how bad it was.

Unfortunately the brat didn't take his bait and get all pissed off like he wanted as she merely smiled at him "I can do many things Lord Raikage, but my mind is my most powerful weapon, I graduated top of my year with the highest scores" Sakura announced.

Sasuke snorted "Yeah because your scary, who'd ever think that someone with pink hair and an obscenely large for…I'm stopping now" Sasuke chimed in, only to pause mid-sentence when Sakura quirked a fuscia brow at him.

An hour later the lot of them were checking into another hotel "Okay you brats we're going to split up and look for information regarding Tsunade and Bee, so one of you will come with the Raikage and I, the other two will go with Cee and Darui" Jiraiya informed.

Cee crossed his arms over his chest, inwardly ranting about how he didn't want to be saddled with protecting two Leaf Dogs "Alright I'm going with E..Jiraiya-sensei" Naruto piped in, hoping to find inspiration to accomplish his task by going with the pervert and Raikage.

"Guess it's you two coming with us then" Darui shrugged, gesturing to Sakura and Sasuke to follow him and Cee from the hotel and back out into the streets on the search for Tsunade and Bee as ordered.

Partway around the village when the Chunin had been to quiet Cee turned "I do hope you aren't slacking, this is supposed to be a joint effort remember" Cee sneered, only to frown when he didn't see the duo.

Until they came out of a building to their right "Sorry, thought we might as well check any of the local hotsprings, Tsunade-sama is rather fond of them" Sakura apologized upon seeing his scowl at their vanishing act.

By the time they returned to the hotel, no information had been found on the two they were searching for and the next few days passed by in a similar manner "We're wasting time here Jiraiya" the Raikage snarled.

"That's right, we've searched this town twice over, and talked to everyone we could" Cee scowled mostly just getting irritated at having to watch over the two leaf shinobi that he and Darui had been saddled with a few days ago.

Jiraiya sighed but relented "Tomorrow we'll leave, damn I didn't realize how hard it would be to find her" Jiraiya grumbled under his breath before doing as the kids had and going to sleep and like he said they left the following morning.

Partway down the path leading to another outlying town the group of them were accosted by bandits Sakura being the one taken captive by them "Hand over all your belongings or we won't slit this girl's throat" the bandit leader threatened.

Brandishing a sword and pressing it against the pinkette's neck while Naruto and Sasuke were held back by Darui and Cee, Jiraiya frowned, 'Up to me to save myself again I see' Sakura sighed inwardly, getting tired of constantly being in this position.

When no one made a move to help her so with a great big heave she threw the bandit that had hold of her into the others with him, focused a bit of chakra into her fist and simply started punching "Fucking bitch that hurt, now your really going to get it you large foreheaded freak" a bandit insulted.

After having one of his ribs cracked "What did you just say" Sakura's chakra spiked dangerously when the forbidden words were uttered within her hearing range "I'll show you a large forehead freak you bastard, CHA" she sneered.

Coming at him faster than he'd expected she would and a punch sent him flying through the air past the other bandits still fighting, upon seeing one of their own get thrown with such force from a simple punch they disengaged and fled as if the hounds of hell were nipping at their heels.

"Hmmph that'll teach them not to insult people" Sakura harrumphed before tending to the few injuries she'd gotten and doing the same for Naruto, Sasuke and Jiraiya as Cee healed himself, Darui and Ay.

Though once finished Ay leveled his gaze upon her person "What gives, that was chakra enhanced strength just now wasn't it, how are you able to utilize the technique, you're a Chunin sure but that kind of power requires a mastery over ones chakra" the Raikage demanded.

The girl nodded "Lord Raikage, I, we've been taught multiple chakra control exercises, but when my sensei realized that I had above average he helped me expand upon it in order to use low level chakra enhanced attacks or high if I simply focus on making as much destruction as possible" Sakura explained.

"Yeah Sakura-chan's our chakra control expert, learned the mystical palm in only three months, did the tree climbing exercise in one try, it took her a few days for the water walking exercise though but still she's the best of our age group at manipulating her chakra" Naruto chimed in.

Sasuke nodding along "That's right, that's not to say we don't each have our own thing we're good at, take Naruto for instance, he's good at sensing, and me, well I'm good with taijutsu" Sasuke added.

Ay scowled at them and that was the end of the conversation as they resumed walking "Only three months, that's less than half the time it took me to learn the mystical palm" Cee muttered unhappily to himself from the back of the group.

Darui nudged him "Really Cee man being jealous over a kid what are you a twelve" Darui snorted, surprised himself but he wasn't throwing a fit about it like his friend/partner was, thankfully Cee's muttering died down at that.

From the front of the group Jiraiya kept shooting surreptitious looks over his shoulder at the group of Chunin "So I've been meaning to ask….how did you learn what your birth name was" Jiraiya questioned suddenly.

Having been wanting to ask for awhile Sakura lowered her book and met his gaze evenly "First mission I met someone who was from my now massacred village, he and I were the lone survivors, he told me all about my biological parents and what their name was" Sakura admitted.

Focusing her attention on her book again 'The lie that you first had trouble with now slips easily from your mouth I see child' Jashin commented, pleased over the fact that Sakura was able to lie more easily now.

"Did this fellow also happen to tell you where your birth village was located, maybe you could go there someday and see if there's anything left to bring back and share with the rest of the world possibly or who even massacred the people that's a good place to start" Jiraiya asked.

Sakura tensed really hating to talk about this subject "My parents were murdered by Orochimaru or rather his subordinates but he was at the root of the massacre and no he didn't tell me" the rosette grimaced.

Jiraiya wisely asked no more sensing that she was doing all she could to keep her temper from flaring "Just don't do anything stupid like declare revenge against Orochimaru, that's a quick way to get yourself killed" Jiraiya warned, seeing the fury etched into her eyes.

"I have no intention of drawing his attention upon myself Jiraiya-sama so don't worry" Sakura assured 'Not yet at least, not until I've completed my full training' she finished inwardly then went back to reading when no one else spoke.

And she was never so glad when later on that day after stopping for the night Sasuke came back with the news "There's a natural hotspring if anyone wants to take a bath tonight" Sasuke declared, placing the rabbits he'd caught in front of Sakura.

Who began skinning them, Naruto rounded on Jiraiya, pouting lightly "Very well but we'll take it in turns of two….we can't do that can we, one of us would be bathing by themselves" Jiraiya relented only to realize there was an odd number of people in the group.

The odd number being the only girl unfortunately "I will bathe alone" Ay informed, glaring around and daring any of them, brats included to object, fortunately no one would argue with him as they moved on to figuring out pairings.

To Naruto and Sasuke's horror Sakura would have to bathe with Cee who did not look happy about the arrangement in the least "Dad's gonna go crazy when he learns about this, he already nearly bit Sasuke's head off just for holding her hand" Naruto winced.

Sasuke shuddering in remembrance "Stuff it Naruto" Sakura warned, spearing the bunch of rabbits on roasting sticks after rubbing them down with flavoring herbs such as garlic, onion and parsley with salt and pepper to make them extra tasty.

Over two hours later once everyone else had taken a soak in the hotspring it was finally Cee's and Sakura's turn, the blonde walked stiffly ahead of her, clearly uncomfortable and still unhappy but there was nothing she could do about it.

As they reached the hotspring "Turn around so that I can undress" Cee barked, Sakura faced the opposite direction like requested, listening to the ruffling of clothes as they were removed before hearing Cee enter the spring.

Never would she admit it but she was uncomfortable with the situation to as she hurriedly stripped, glad she'd brought her swimsuit along and donned it quickly before sliding into the hotspring and immediately relaxed as the heat soothed tense muscles.

"Don't have much to offer do you, you wouldn't make a very good seductress with those excuses on your chest" Cee commented suddenly, looking her up and down, at his most insulting that night apparently.

Sakura straightened immediately tense again but didn't say anything because she didn't want to start an argument which Cee was obviously itching for at the moment since he'd been stuck with her for a bath.

Cee scowled then smirked as a wicked idea formed in his mind and so she didn't catch on to what he was planning slid closer until their arms were touching and pinned her to the side of the hotspring before she could react.

Her eyes were wide and she didn't look very happy at the position he had her in either "Are you serious, let go of me Cee-san" Sakura frowned as she struggled against him, only freezing when a soft moan escaped his mouth as she remembered that he was naked.

"Seems you do have it in you Sakura-san" Cee mused, dark as night eyes glinting with desire as he shifted so that he was pressed up against her covered place, panic flickered in her gaze and Sakura stared up at him fearfully.

He came back to his senses at that and flung himself away from her, Sakura clearly wasn't going to stick around as she scrambled to climb out of the spring "Wait" Cee caught her as she was about to go rushing back to camp.

A towel wrapped around his waist "Why should I, I have no desire to be practically molested again thank you" Sakura snapped, edging warily away from him as she did so and he understood the damage he'd done.

"Look it was just supposed to be a joke and I hadn't intended on taking it that far, I won't touch you again so come back and finish your bath alright" Cee grimaced, Sakura eyed him dubiously but let him lead her back to the hotspring.

Where as Cee promised he stayed on the other side of the hotspring while they washed themselves before deciding it was time to get out "Okay I'm done" Sakura called, once she was dressed properly, Cee had courteously let her go first.

Five minutes later they were back at camp and crawling into their bedrolls to get some shut eye for the night, knowing that tomorrow would involve another long day of walking as they headed for another village to gather information.